UNITED STATES PENSIONS.

Dominion, Volume 4, Issue 1063, 28 February 1911, Page 3

UNITED STATES PENSIONS.

EXrENDITUHE OF .£40,000,000 ANNUALLY. One. of the last acts of tho present Kopublican Congress will l>e to increase tho pension list, which is already fo high as to constitute a severo strain upon the public resources annually. - Ths pension list reached its, highest mark in 1893, when it stood at .£32,000,000. Thero was a- decline to JE28,000,000; but last year it reached a new high-water mark of nearly .£33,000,000.,

. The' presrat House Committee, on Pen-, sions has just agreed on a Bill, which will increase the expenditure- to •£■!0,000,000 annually by increasing the scrvico pension rate, lindor tho proposed law tho applicant will not bo obliged to fhrnish proof of disability. Every honfiurably discharged soldier who served not ess than 90 days in tho Civil War or CO dnys in the Mexican. War will l>3 entitled to a pension on reaching the age of 62. The present-rates. aro raised about jCla month all-round. ■•When it is remembered that the Civil War took place forty-oight years ago and tho war: with Mexico sixty-four years ago, the 'continual increase in, .the. amount of pensions and in the iiumher nf pjnsioaers'is surprising, and lays the Republican ■Congress-open- to a suspicion 'of jobbery aud a bid for popularity. Owing to the acUvitj - of agents, known as ''pension sharks," the number of pensioners has steadily increased from,'Bs,!>B6.in 18C5 to 910,10} in 1909. Many of these pensioners never.actually served in tho field, though they were called to arms, and very many aro. in no need whatever of' tho money. There are no old ago pensions in the United States. ■ • " '